Paulo Coelho – Like the Flowing River

Score: 6.5/10

And let me start with this-> I’m an idiot.

I should have read the backside of the book and I wouldn’t get this negative surprise. But, as it often happens, this negative surprise turned out to be an advantage. So here I go giving almost perfect score to this piece (kind of reluctant to call it a book).

So what does this piece do? (Assuming you would be very childishly (and cutely too) asking “what does it (Like the Flowing River) do?”)

It collects some of Coelho’s columns, social media posts and probably even books. So the longest story/article has probably less than 5 pages and that makes it a perfect material for a vacation, where you are to spend most of your time with your family and not reading Mirko! Your reading time is 2230-2300 and your mind is still superexcited from all that happened during a sunny day on the beach, so you don’t even want, or need a story. If anything, you want something to make your reflexions a tiny bit deeper. And for this, my dear dear friends, is this piece the masterpiece.

Coelho shares his opinions on everything in there and it is good.

It feels like reading different kind of religious book and that is good too.

AND Coelho is annoying about his passion (archery) the same way I’m annoying about mine (surfing) and it is the best (but only for me and Coelho).

It should come with a warning: “Best to be served on tired, happy, salty (from all the sea), sun-exposed head!”

P.S.: I’ve low-dog-eared almost every second page-> full of wisdom!

P.S.: And AND I just HAVE TO add this. Recently, I have been lucky enough to receive a great gift of yet another extraordinary friend who almost immediately became one of my besties. And as besties do, he often mocks me for some of my affections. Specifically, he likes to call Coelho’s books “the philosophy for the simple ones” and he might be right, but only to a certain extent. I criticize Coelho a lot as he tends to be cheesy, BUT (I would want this BUT to be in bold and underlined) pretty much each and every page of his book gives you a chance to change your life for better. In case you ever read him slowly, you must know that feeling, when you feel like you should stop reading and try to fully comprehend the wisdom you just been given, but you are too lazy to stop and you just hope your sub-consciousness will take care of that. Well there you go. That’s your chance! It’s a decision you can, but don’t have to, make. And this dude has given the humanity a lot of changes.

He IS changing the world to a better place and there is no way to put a number on that!

Favourite line:

On doing nothing aka “seizing the chance (…I’ve mentioned in the last paragraph)”

“Today I have absolutely nothing that requires my attention.

I feel uneasy. Shouldn’t I be doing something? Well, if I anted to invent work, that wouldn’t take much effort. We all have projects to develop, light bulbs to change, leaves to sweep, books to put away, computer files to organize. But how about just facing up to the void?

…

I have a long, hard struggle with myself not to get up and go to the stationery shop to buy that glue. I experience terrible feelings of anxiety, but I am determined to stay here doing
nothing, at least for a few hours. Gradually, the anxiety gives way to contemplation, and I start to listen to my soul. It has been longing to speak to me, but I’m always too busy.

The wind is still blowing very hard, and I know that it’s cold and rainy, and that tomorrow I might perhaps need to buy some glue. I’m not doing anything, and yet I’m also doing the most important thing a man can do: I’m listening to what I needed to hear from myself.”